Controversial apartment and townhome project goes before City Council

Tampa’s City Council is scheduled to consider up a proposal Thursday, Sept. 23, on a controversial apartment and townhome development slated to go into the largely, but not exclusively, residential Beach Park neighborhood on the edge of the Westshore District.

The development at 200 S. Hoover St. calls for a 392-unit, six story building, 16 two-story townhouses and a seven-story parking garage. The developer, Wisco 7 LLC, is asking the city to change the rezoning from residential office to planned development.

The council, on Thursday, could take the first step toward giving final approval to the project or effectively kill it.

The building, which is opposed by a group of neighbors, would sit next to an existing apartment building, Mosaic Westshore, and within sight of several other condo and apartment complexes, two hotels, townhomes and several office buildings. The property, on the corner of South Hoover and West Cleveland Streets, now houses Mariner Square Park an office complex that sits mostly empty.

The Hillsborough Planning Commission, according to records on the council’s website, found the plan consistent with the Tampa’s Comprehensive Plan.

The Beach Park neighborhood is off Westshore and Kennedy boulevards, near the on-ramp to the Howard Frankland Bridge and within walking distance to WestShore Plaza. Along with the offices, condominiums and apartments, the neighborhood, like much of South Tampa, is being transformed from one of small ranchers housing longtime residents to one of newly constructed million-dollar homes often housing newcomers.

Many of those residents have banded together against the 200 S. Hoover St. project and two others that are in the development process by forming a group called Save Beach Park.

The group argues that bringing that many apartments into the area would cause overcrowding at local schools and on nearby streets. Proponents, though, say that growth in an area already in the midst of a transformation, especially when condominiums, apartments and office complexes already exist in the neighborhood, is unavoidable. 

Among the two other projects currently under consideration is a 12-story, 192-unit mixed-use building that would sit on the water at 5600 Mariner St. which was proposed by a development group with ties to the Kiran & Pallavi Patel Foundation for Global Understanding.

Thursday’s meeting is set for 5 p.m. in the City Council chamber of the Old City Hall on Kennedy Boulevard.